


A Mother's Love

by rainysunshine



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: F/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 05:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17094491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainysunshine/pseuds/rainysunshine
Summary: Tessa discovers something about her daughter.





	A Mother's Love

**Author's Note:**

> based on this video:
> 
> https://www.instagram.com/p/BpngbPylJ9v/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1a30mrl7vdb65

_“Hi! Hi, Momma! Hi! What’che doin?”_

 

_“Why are you taking off my clothes? It’s cold now.”_

 

_“Up! Up!”_

 

_“I like your face.”_

 

_“Touching face!”_

 

_“Muh-Mah. Momma. Mama.”_

 

_“Where are we going? Where are we going, Momma? Where are we-”_

 

_“No.”_

 

_“No- no- no- noooooOOOOOOOO!!!”_

 

_“Momma, no! No! Don’t want!”_

 

_“No! No! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”_

 

_“Don’t do this to me, Momma. Please! No- Oh god, it’s happening. Oh GOD- SHIT! SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT-”_

 

_“NO MORE! MOM! NO! STOOOOPPPPPP!!!”_

 

_“YOUR WORDS MEAN NOTHING TO ME!!!”_

 

_“I HATE YOU!”_

 

_“DAD!!! DAAAADD!!! DAD, HELP ME!”_

 

_“Also useless. Oh FUCK! FUCK NO. STOP! I DON’T WANNA- NO!”_

 

_“Momma, please!”_

 

_“This is how I die.”_

 

_“SOPHIE!!! SOPHIIIIIEEE!!! HELP MEEEEE!!!!”_

 

_“JESUS FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK FUCK! MOTHERFUCKER!”_

 

_“MOM WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME. I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME.”_

 

_“NO STOP. DONT- NO MORE- NO NO NO- FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-”_

 

Tessa should not be finding any of this funny at all.

To be honest, she really doesn’t at this moment. Especially after it keeps happening almost everyday. The laughters of amusement turn to sighs of frustration as she has to go through this every time she has to bathe her baby girl, a supposedly happy duty she loves to do with her children.

“It’s okay- it’s okay, baby. It’s okay,” Tessa coos as she holds her small naked child, whose desperate whimpers have grown louder since the second they stepped into the bathroom, still slightly hovering above the water in the baby bathtub. She’s barely touched the water, only a portion of her plump butt managed to break the barrier before she’s clawing and reaching out for her mother in a desperate attempt to get herself out. “It’s okay, Madeline. My baby. Shhh. It’s okay.”

Tessa attempts to lower her child once again, only to be met with immediate resistance in the form of a loud whimper.

She’s not crying; there are no tears. But she hasn’t stopped grunting “eh! eh! eh! eh! eh!” since she realized her impending doom. Her face is all scrunched up, creating deep lines on her face, causing her to look like a crinkly old man instead of a 4-month-old baby girl in a strange, Benjamin Button-esque sort of way.

The first time it happened, Tessa found it all too amusing and called for her husband, who in turn laughed with her and started video recording it with his phone. Now, Tessa feels terrible she hadn’t taken the situation more seriously. She feels like a negligent mother for making light of her baby’s distress.

Maddie’s eyes flash bright green with fear, petrified as her elbows sink into the water.

 

“Eh! Eh! Eh! Eh! Eh!” she grunts loudly, wheezing every syllable.

 

“I know, baby. I know. Shhh…” Tessa grazes her palm across her tiny chest, feeling the baby’s intense heartbeat, trying to soothe her. “Momma’s here. It’s okay. It’s okay, Maddie. It’s okay.” She sounds like a broken record, but she’s lost for words on how to comfort her baby.

She scoops the bath water into her right hand, before carefully pouring it over Maddie’s head to wet her soft, reddish-brown hair.

 

But Maddie isn’t having it at all.

 

She automatically tenses, her entire body going rigid as her muscles contract to the extreme. Her arms starts spreading to the sides of the tub, even though they aren’t long enough to grasp the edges, and her back starts arching into the sky up above. Her hands are bunched into a tight grip.

 

“EH! EH! UH! UH! UUUHH!” she yells loudly in distress.

 

Ever since Maddie was born, both Tessa and Scott felt like they had to relearn everything to know in raising a baby. It was then they truly appreciated how good Sophie was when she was in her little sister’s position. While their firstborn was quiet and calm, their second one was wild and unpredictable. Maddie would cry insistently for either of them in random intervals during the dead of night. She would refuse to eat yet wail from hunger a few moments later. She would scream and flail around if she wasn’t picked up during most hours of the day.

 

Tessa falls asleep with the heaviest eyes and tired limbs every night.

(But the way Scott would automatically get up and soothe their crying baby every night without question makes her love him even more.)

 

On the other hand, there are also a lot of things Tessa loves about her daughter.

 

She loves how unconditionally happy Maddie get whenever she’s playing with her. She loves how her baby grows each day looking more and more like her. She loves the way her tiny, chubby fingers cling to her pink sweater whenever she gets unreasonably whiny.

If only she loved bathtime.

 

Tessa takes pity on her; it’s always hard to see her children’s unhappiness no matter the situation. “I’m sorry, Madeline. I’m sorry. Just a little more okay? I promise. Momma promises.”

Maddie closes her mouth, and her face immediately forms into a deep pout.

Something tells Tessa her child doesn’t believe her.

She places her finger into Maddie’s left palm, allowing her to grip it.

Maddie starts clinging on it as if her life depended on it.

 

“It’s okay… It’s okay, baby. It’s oka-“

 

It’s then that Tessa starts to see the tears forming in her baby’s eyes. Without a sound coming out from her mouth, Maddie starts silently crying, small drops falling down her cheeks as she gazes upon her mother. Terrified beyond belief.

 

“Oh no!” Tessa exclaims, releasing her finger from Maddie’s grip in order to wipe her tears away. She feels her mouth go dry. “Oh no- baby. My baby. Don’t cry- no- no- no. Shhh… Come on… Mama’s gonna cry too if you do that…”

She’s not lying.

Maddie’s lips tremble in response, before letting out a long wheeze.

Upon securing her baby in her arms, making sure she couldn’t fall into the water accidentally, Tessa bends down and starts kissing Maddie’s wet cheeks. Soft, light kisses only a mother could give to her child.

“Momma’s here. Nothing to worry about, baby,” she whispers as she continues kissing her, alternating between cheeks. “It’s okay, my love. It’s okay- it’s okay…”

Maddie responds with a loud, shuddery wail.

Tessa continues to adorn her chubby cheeks with kisses upon kisses, uttering words of comfort to calm her baby down.

 

What else is she to do?

 

She doesn’t know.

 

_I didn’t want to be a bad mother._

 

In a spur of the moment, Tessa’s lips travel up her face and lands on her nose.

 

The result is instantaneous.

 

Maddie looks at her with wide, surprised eyes, as if her mother just grew two heads, as if her mother just transformed her hair blonde. She stops her whimpers and tears, her expression quite unreadable as her mouth opens but no sound coming out. Tessa can feel her body relax in her arms and can see her hand slowly releasing her tight grip.

 

Like magic.

 

Her baby’s emerald eyes begin darting back and forth to observe every inch of her mother’s face.

 

“Maddie...”

 

“Eh…” she quietly responds.

 

“Are you okay, baby?”

 

She answers with a blank stare; she’s gone completely limp in Tessa’s arms.

So Tessa tests her theory once again. She slowly bends over to kiss Maddie’s tiny nose.

When she looks at her baby’s face again, she finds a hint of a smile forming across her thin lips.

“Oh! Oh my god!” Tessa can’t help but express her astonishment on her child’s instantaneous reaction to such a small gesture: “You like it when I kiss your nose, baby?”

 

As if forgetting about the deathly fluid around her, Maddie brings her hand up from the water and scratches her nose.

Tessa understands her implicit request and kisses her nose once more.

The smile on her baby’s face afterwards… She could never comprehend how warm it made her chest feel. If only her husband was home to record this moment…

After a mental debate, Tessa gently lowers her baby back into the tub, hoping she wouldn’t fuss around so much. And she was right. Maddie, having become incredibly pliant (as if she were pudding), doesn’t utter a word as her body gets submerged, up to her neck, in the bath water.

Tessa quickly bathes her, thoroughly cleaning her with baby soap and a piece of wet cloth, making sure every nook and cranny is properly cleaned.

 

Maddie’s eyes never leave hers.

 

(At this moment, Tessa hasn’t recognized or understood the significance of what just happened. She doesn’t know she’ll use the same tactic when Maddie walks for the first time. Or her first skate. Or her first airplane trip. Or her first day of school.

Or right before her first Olympic performance.

_“Nervous, Momma.”_

_A kiss to her nose._

_“It’s okay, Madeline”._

But she will gradually over time.)

 

After carefully bringing her baby out of the water and enveloping her in a large, fluffy towel to dry, Tessa lays her down unto her changing table.

 

Maddie is still staring at her intently, never breaking her gaze.

 

The mother and daughter share a comfortable silence as Tessa clothes Maddie into a new, clean, Christmas-green onesie. After closing up the last of the buttons, Tessa lovingly rubs her protruding tummy and chunky thighs.

She smiles at her baby’s smile.

She shouldn't really be surprised. A child of her and Scott being comforted by small gestures and intimate touches? It was inevitable.

 

“Uh.”

 

Tessa’s thoughts get interrupted by the quiet grunt from her baby.

 

“Hmmm?”

 

Maddie rubs her nose once more.

Tessa giggles to herself as she kisses her nose for the fourth time. And this time, Maddie lets out the most delightful, happiest laugh, clapping her hand together.

“Now you can’t get enough of it, eh?”

 

The tiny smile on her cute face tells everything.

 

Tessa picks her up from the changing table, her right hand holding her baby’s back as her left hand lifts her baby’s butt, then walks from the nursery to the master bedroom. Judging by the sleepy yawns Maddie lets out as she snuggles her face against her neck, it won’t take long until they’re both dozing off on her large, king-size bed.

The bed seems to swallow the tiny child as Tessa gently lays her down on top of the silk bed sheets.

She scooches over to her baby’s side, allowing her to be as close as possible without suffocating her, letting her curl against the front of her body if Maddie so chooses.

 

Which, of course, she does.

 

Tessa lets out a breathy sigh of relief before closing her eyes.

 

_(pat pat)_

 

She opens her eyes to the feel tiny hands patting her arm. Maddie is staring directly at her with her glittering green eyes.

 

Tessa is confused at first.

 

_Oh._

 

She reaches over.

 

A kiss to the nose.

 

Maddie lets out the most satisfied coo and scrunches her face up while smiling, mimicking her father (Tessa will always find it funny how her second child looks exactly like her but acts like Scott in every single manner.). Only then does she close her eyes.

 

“I love you, Madeline.”

 

Tessa closes her eyes too.

 

She never sees Maddie opening her eyes again.

 

_“I love you too, Momma.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Yep. I'm trying to transition to ao3 cause the tumblr format ain't working for me anymore. I still love hearing responses from tumblr (and might still prefer it that way) so please feel free to leave an ask and yell at me like you usually do.


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